100/100

[originally written on my blog]

I don't understand how you make a film that looks like this and then go on to make 32 subsequent films (and counting) that look nothing like this. But then, neither do I understand how you achieve the perfect synthesis of your many gifts and somehow conclude that you totally whiffed, to the point where you beg the studio to destroy the negative. Each of the film's tricky balancing acts—between visual beauty and verbal dexterity, between wit and pathos, between the specific and the universal—couldn't be more sublimely realized; like most every masterpiece, it's a tiny, insular story that nonetheless embodies human folly at its most ubiquitous and grandiose. That Woody chooses to make…

“Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat—oh, I love this. New York was his town, and it always would be.”

Is life fundamentally sweet or sour? Depends on your point of view, I suppose. You get a new job, make a new friend, fall in love—life is honeyed and worth living. You lose that job, have a falling out with that friend, fall out of love—life is curdled and should be thrown out. The funny thing is, those circumstances don’t parcel themselves out discretely. They tend to coexist. You get a promotion but have a fight with your spouse about the…

Film #3 of Florin's Recommendations

“I feel like we're in a Noel Coward play. Someone should be making martinis.”

Isaac Davies is the typical Woody Allen character, an underachieving intellectual who is not confident enough to do what he wants to do in life, someone who is living a romantically –and of course sexually- problematic life and seems to struggle with the endless complexities of human relationships, someone who has always been one step away from achieving success but the fear of rejection and the lack of confidence have kept him from reaching greatness and happiness, an individual who is desperately searching for the meaning of life in a time and place where things- thanks to modernization- are changing so…

Few will deny that Woody Allen, as a director, is formulaic as fuck, especially thematically as nine out of ten of his pictures revolve around male-female romances with some oddity about them - often triangular or double-triangular to add extra conflict. Personally though, I really don’t mind since the format appeals to me and Woody’s releases, even his newest, manage to inflict on me the emotions they attempt to inspire: a smile, a bit of warmth and light upset due to characters’ choices and habits. Manhatten, following his most acclaimed feature Annie Hall, may as one of his earliest efforts have rolled out the red carpet for his impressive filmography and this fact is obvious from its romantic-comedy structure. Yet,…

I have no idea why it's taken me so long to actually watch this film. I loved Annie Hall the first time I saw it many years ago, and this had a similar impact. It's not too much a different story, a neurotic writer looking for love in NYC. However, I feel this one just edges it over Annie Hall. First, the black and white cinematography is immensely eye pleasing, some of the shots are like stunning photographs. I particularly like how the screen is often divided into two equal parts. On top of this, the comedy is perfect, it's the same witty outbursts you get in Annie Hall, however, this film also includes a number of slapstick moments that…

"Manhattan", a film where watching couples walk and talk down the street is as entertaining as ever.

The unofficial follow-up to the suprisignly heartfelt and touching "Annie Hall, "Manhattan" once again stars Woody Allen and Diane Keaton as existential lovers in the Big Apple. This time, Allen's character Isaac is getting over a divorce and is recovering with a young, seventeen year old. Isaac however becomes fond of his best friend's mistress, Mary (Keaton) and becomes emotionally overwhelmed with his conflicting situation.

"Manhattan" isn't as dense or emotionally ambitious as "Annie Hall", but it is just as satisfying with an equally consistent dialogue, wit, and charm from its cast. Woody Allen truly shows his range as a writer and director…

In consideration as Woody Allen's most overrated work. I've seen MANHATTAN a few times now and I'll be damned if I'm still not sure what the point of it is. Allen followed his acclaimed ANNIE HALL with this, his plush black and white stylized tribute to New York City and director Ingmar Bergman, but it's not as good and doesn't offer much for the viewer other than the glitz.

Woody plays a middle-aged writer of 42 named Isaac, who is divorced from his ex-wife (Meryl Streep - who is now living with another woman in a lesbian relationship), and now dates and sleeps with a 17 year-old high school student (the emotionless Mariel Hemingway). But he gets his head turned…